Police raid three pot shops, but they don't stay closed for long

Ottawa police cracked down on the city's illegal marijuana shops last week, raiding three of them. All three establishments restocked their shelves and opened again, demonstrating how difficult it has become to control the growth of dispensaries.

Ottawa police cracked down on the city’s illegal marijuana shops last week, raiding three of them.

All three establishments restocked their shelves and opened again, demonstrating how difficult it has become to control the growth of dispensaries.

There are at least 19 shops in Ottawa, more than when police began raiding them almost a year ago. The dispensaries are popping up across Canada in advance of the federal government’s pledge to legalize recreational pot by July 2018.

Some Ottawa shop employees say they don’t fear being arrested for drug trafficking.

“If more people are arrested, there will be more volunteers to take their place,” said the man working Friday at Cannabliss on Preston Street. It opened three weeks ago, and sells to anyone over 19 with ID. The shop was raided Monday and back in business by Thursday.

Joe, the budtender who was arrested during the Cannabliss raid, said he and other staffers work there for free.

“I knew it was a risk,” said Joe, who declined to give his last name. “It’s something I believe in, that I’m passionate about.” Joe, 33, said he smoked pot to get high when he was younger, but now self-medicates with various strains to control his crippling depression and ease the pain of arthritis.

Joe said he was alone in the back room, where the cannabis is stored, when a police officer in a black balaclava came through the door. “In half a second, they had me in handcuffs.”

The Cannabliss marijuana shop on Preston Street was raided by police on Aug. 21, about three weeks after it opened its doors. It reopened by Aug. 24.Jacquie Miller /
Postmedia

“(Police) were very respectful and courteous. They actually talked to me like a person, not a criminal. I was quite impressed with that.”

Joe said he was charged with four counts of drug trafficking and one count of possessing the proceeds of crime. He was held for about eight hours at police headquarters. The man in the cell next door had been picked up in a raid on Vital Medicinals, he said. That shop, on Bank Street near Heron Road, opened earlier this summer.

A staffer at Vital Medicinals confirmed there had been a raid and that one person was arrested. The store re-opened Thursday.

The third raid was at Lifeline Medicinals on Rideau Street. One of the two staffers taken into custody during the Thursday morning raid was back behind the counter Saturday, carefully counting out piles of bills.

The man said he had been charged with drug trafficking, but the conditions of his release did not prevent him from going back to work. He declined to give his name.

Police confiscated all the weed, cannabis concentrates and cookies at the shop, said Tia, a Lifeline staffer who arrived soon after the raid began. There must have been more merchandise readily available because Tia was inside the locked store the same afternoon, contemplating whether to reopen that day or wait in case the police came back. The shop reopened Friday.

“I’m not ashamed of what I’m doing,” said Tia, who declined to give her last name. “At the end of the day, if we have to put our lives at risk to help people, so be it.”

Tia said the store serves many medical patients who can’t find a doctor to prescribe marijuana or don’t want to use the legal mail-order system. “We’re here to bridge the gap between street dealers and the unreliable online ordering.”

“We try to be professional,” she said, noting that the cannabis brownies on sale were approved by Health Canada. The label on the package claims each brownie contains 200 mg of THC, the psychoactive ingredient that makes users high, and was “tested by a Health Canada approved facility.”

The Green Oasis marijuana shop opened at 523 Bank St. on Aug. 21, occupying the same space that housed another pot shop for a few weeks in the spring.Jacquie Miller /
Postmedia

Health Canada says that products in dispensaries are obtained illicitly, aren’t regulated and may be unsafe.

The shop also helps the community, said Tia, conducting food drives for local charities like The Mission and handing out free pizza several times a month because many of the customers are on social assistance.

Two customers who arrived at the closed shop after the raid said they supported dispensaries.

“I’m tired of buying from drug dealers,” said Roger Lamarre, who said the cannabis pills and oils he buys at the store help his PTSD and anger. Lamarre said he spent 21 years in jail, but now works as a roofer and in construction. “I’m a violent person, but (cannabis) helps me be on an even keel.

“I’ve gone from being a monster, hurting people, robbing banks, to someone who works and actually helps people now.”

His partner, Melanie Martel, said she is signed up to buy cannabis legally to help her anxiety. She whips out empty packages from a Health Canada-approved mail-order grower. She ran out, and is waiting for her doctor to approve a higher dose, so she buys at the dispensary, she explained.

Saturday afternoon, there was a lineup of half a dozen customers at Lifeline, all young men who appeared to be in their 20s. “This is a social threat,” said passerby Jojo Diamond Presley, who said he lives in the neighbourhood and wants the shop closed. “All these kids are screwing up their minds. As soon as they get a little stress, they get the dope and they smoke up. They don’t have the skills to handle stress.”

Staffers at all three of the raided stores said they did not know who owns the establishments, and declined to name the managers.

A recent Ottawa police report by the professional standards division said the dispensaries are difficult to investigate because of their nomadic nature. The “high-level” owners sometimes don’t live in Ontario or even Canada, and employees are often unwilling to co-operate with police, said the report.

Case in point: a new shop opened a week ago on Bank Street near Catherine called “Green Oasis.”

It’s in the same location that housed another shop, “Herbal Leaf,” for a few weeks in April and May. Herbal Leaf vacated after the landlord tacked a notice on the door in early June, saying $3,955 was owed for a month’s rent and threatening to change the locks.

The letter was addressed to “Trees Dispensary Society” — the name of another pot shop that opened on Montreal Road for a few weeks in the spring before closing down.

The label on the cannabis brownie sold at Lifeline Medicinals marijuana store says it was tested at a Health Canada-approved lab.Jacquie Miller /
Postmedia

Ottawa police launched a series of high-profile raids on the city’s dispensaries between November 2016 and March 2017, issuing press releases warning that the shops are illegal.

The last five months had been quiet, though, until last week’s raids.

The report by police professional standards said the force monitors the shops but does not have the resources to devote “full-time resources to individual store front investigations.”

The force is taking a “city-wide” approach to the problem and focusing on closing the shops by disrupting their supply chain, it said.

Ottawa police have not yet issued any public statements about the latest raids. A police spokesperson said that drug squad officers were not immediately available to comment.

The Ottawa raids

17: Number of raids conducted by Ottawa police against marijuana dispensaries since November 2016

11: Number of those shops raided by police that subsequently reopened

17: Approximate number of shops in town before police began raids in November 2016

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

We want you to have the most accurate weather report you can.

City Hall Blog

The Toronto Transit Commission is having problems with fare gates that work with Presto cards. It’s not great news for OC Transpo, since the transit agency in Ottawa uses a similar fare gate made by the same manufacturer.